What is Thailand’s attitude after the 72-hour golden rescue period has expired?

The 72-hour golden rescue period has expired. Thailand: Search and rescue will never stop.

According to reports, on the afternoon of July 5, local time, two tourist boats carrying 133 tourists capsized in the sea respectively on Coral Island in Phuket and Mui Thong Island, Thailand, 127 of whom were Chinese tourists. Currently, search and rescue operations are continuing.

According to the latest news from the front, the 42 people killed in the boat capsizing accident in Phuket, Thailand, and the 14 people still missing are all Chinese citizens.

It is understood that the Chinese tourists on the two ships involved in the incident were basically independent travelers. Most of these tourists purchased travel products on China’s domestic online travel platforms and then took the cruise ship involved in the incident to Pudong. Kyrgyzstan has launched a one-day trip to the "Emperor's Island" tourist attraction.

Currently, all 42 people on the "Princess Elsa" have been rescued. The dead and missing people in the accident were all from the "Phoenix". Starting on the 7th, two rescue teams from China arrived in Phuket, Thailand, and launched search and rescue operations with the Thai side. One is a 12-member rescue team from the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport; the other is the Gongyang Rescue Team, a private team from Zhejiang.

Yesterday (8th), the Chinese rescue team and the Thai rescue team went to the shipwreck waters of Phuket Island to salvage the wreckage of the capsized cruise ship. Another night has passed. How is the rescue situation now?

Thailand: Search and rescue will never stop after the 72-hour golden rescue period

What work did the Chinese government’s joint working group carry out yesterday? How is the rescue situation so far? Are there any new changes in the number of victims and missing people?

Yan Hao said that from last night to the morning of today (9th), the information he had was that the Chinese working group was at the rescue site in Phuket. Mainly engaged in the following work. The first is that they conducted joint search and rescue with the Thai side. A search and rescue team from the Guangzhou Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport of China and a private search and rescue team from Zhejiang participated in the three-dimensional search and rescue mission on the sea, underwater and in the air with Thai search and rescue personnel under the arrangement of the Chinese side. Search to try to find more missing people. However, after a day of search and rescue yesterday, the results were not particularly great, and the current number of missing people is still 14. We checked with the Chinese working group and the Thai side yesterday. It is currently confirmed that the 42 people killed and the 14 missing people are all Chinese citizens. This is about the rescue aspect.

The golden 72 hours for rescue have now passed. Will there be any changes in the rescue methods and scope ahead? In this regard, Yan Hao said that before and after the 72-hour arrival, the Chinese Ambassador to Thailand Lv Jian and the Thai Minister of Tourism and Sports all promised us that they would never stop the search and rescue until all the missing people were found. , will not change based on whether it is 72 hours or not, this is about search and rescue. The second one is the scope of search and rescue. Because the accident sea area is still relatively open, the governor of Phuket told us that they have sent a request for assistance to the two neighboring provinces and requested the other two neighboring provinces to help expand the search and rescue. scope.

As for the situation of our injured compatriots and their families, Yan Hao said that family members of the victims and injured have been coming to Phuket from China since the day before yesterday. According to the situation he knows, so far , more than 50 Chinese families of the victims and injured should have arrived in Phuket. The Thai side has set up rescue stations at Phuket International Airport and two hospitals. A rescue center has also been set up in Phuket Province, where their local government offices are, composed of Thai and local Chinese. Volunteers provided translation, liaison, and reception services for the family members, and provided many free hotels for them to stay. After arriving at the hospital from the airport, the victims' DNA, photos and identity characteristics were compared. This is what I learned at the scene of Qiaolongwan Pier, the nearest port to the accident area.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism requires the removal of unqualified self-guided travel products

After the accident, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of my country will carry out emergency investigation work, requiring online travel companies and platforms, and travel agencies to carry out Urgent investigation was conducted and a batch of unqualified self-guided tour products were removed from the shelves.

At the same time, tourists are guided to plan their travel routes rationally.

Before the two capsized cruise ships went out to sea, the local government issued strong wind and heavy rain warnings to warn the public. The local police also revealed: "Phuket travel agencies have been warned many times not to leave the port, but they ignored the warnings many times and took tourists into the Andaman Sea when the waves were at a very dangerous level."

After the incident, some tourists revealed online that they had booked a one-day trip to Thailand. When they learned that the weather was bad on the day of departure and wanted to cancel the reservation, they were told by the travel platform that they had to bear the loss themselves if they canceled the reservation. Some tourists risked going out to sea in order not to waste money:

The tourist said that it happened last month, when he wanted to cancel the one-day tour product, but because the departure date was approaching, there was no way to refund. He booked a product for four people at the time, and the price was about 1,000 yuan. Later, he had no choice but to participate. Fortunately, there was no danger.

According to preliminary understanding, most of the Chinese tourists involved were independent tourists who ordered products through online platforms, involving Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Liaoning, Henan and other provinces. The reporter learned from Fliggy, a travel platform owned by Alibaba, that the incident involved 61 tourists booked on Fliggy, 22 of whom are still out of contact, and it has been confirmed that 5 people were unfortunately killed.

In addition, there are media reports that there are hundreds of travel agencies, ground pick-up agencies, and tourism companies on Phuket Island. There are many docks and cruise ships are basically private. Travel agencies or tourism websites need to rent boats to arrange travel. Due to the explosive growth of Chinese tourists to Thailand in recent years, frequent cruise ship transactions, untimely equipment updates, and lax safety measures have increased the risks of maritime travel. Yang Shunli, general manager of Zhongshan International Travel Service in Jiangsu Province, reminded that when traveling, you must first choose travel products that are suitable for all aspects of your body. The second one is to do some homework. For example, if the weather is bad, it rains, and you cannot go to the sea, you must have a sense of safety and self-protection.

Experts: Online platforms should do more work in early warning and prompting of risks

After the accident, many companies, including Uxin Travel, Ctrip, CYTS and Lvmama, Many tourism agencies have confirmed that the independent and group tourists in Phuket, Thailand organized by them are safe. Many tourism agencies stated that they have asked their Thai tour leaders and ground operators to pay more attention to extreme weather, effectively ensure the safety of tourists, and do a good job in communicating and comforting tourists.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism will conduct emergency inspections of online travel companies, platforms, and travel agencies in the near future, remove a batch of unqualified self-guided travel products from the shelves, and require tourists to fill in tourist information when purchasing individual overseas travel products. Online travel companies, platforms, and product suppliers are required to strengthen risk warnings when promoting and selling high-risk outbound self-guided travel projects.

Xie Chaowu, deputy director of the Tourism Safety Research Institute of Huaqiao University, explained that for online travel platforms that sell travel products, they must ensure that the travel products they sell are formal and safe. In addition, online platforms can also do more work in risk warning and prompts.

Xie Chaowu said that in accordance with the Consumer Rights Protection Law, merchants have the responsibility to ensure the safety of products when selling products and to ensure that consumption of the products will not cause personal or property losses to consumers. Of course, travel agencies are no exception. The particularity of travel agencies is that they assume more intermediary functions. Specific tourism business activities are completed and implemented by tourism element enterprises such as scenic spots and ship companies to implement safety management activities. Therefore, the responsibility of travel agencies is transformed into ensuring The source safety responsibility of tourism products ensures the formality, legality and safety of food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment and other elements of the route products. On this basis, travel agencies (including online travel agencies) have the responsibility to manage and control risks throughout the entire process, including risk assessment of the overall product, release of real-time risk information, risk pre-control in the process, suspension or termination of activity itineraries, etc., as well as for Safety education for tourists. Generally speaking, travel agencies can do more to ensure travel safety to help tourists travel better and safely.

At the same time, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism requires that all localities provide guidance for online travel companies and platforms to establish and improve outbound self-guided travel emergency mechanisms, clarify the relevant responsibilities of online travel companies and platforms, improve emergency plans, and detail safety measures. , smooth information channels, and provide timely risk warnings. It also guides tourists to plan their travel routes rationally, choose means of transportation with operating qualifications, and not blindly pursue excitement or take risks during travel adventures.

Generally speaking, tourists ignore the risks caused by factors such as bad weather because they have limited travel time and do not want to delay their travel plans due to weather conditions. Moreover, often travel service providers will not refund tourists due to weather and other reasons. Playing involves risks. If you don’t play, you may not have the chance to revisit your old place, and you will have to bear the losses yourself. Xie Chaowu said that if tourists purchase delay insurance, they can avoid falling into this decision-making dilemma.

Xie Chaowu said that with delay insurance, if flights are delayed, cruise ships are delayed, and some subsequent economic losses occur, then delay insurance can pay for this loss to transfer these losses. The risk of a decision-making dilemma will play a positive role in helping tourists make correct decisions in risky situations.

Source; ifeng.com information